Droog

L.A. based Droog are Andrei Osyka, Brett Griffin and Justin Sloe.  2006 saw the three start out on their path as Droog, putting on ever more popular parties in their native LA and three years later setting up their internationally acclaimed label, Culprit.  With their hearts and heads ruled by forward thinking techno and deep house, the trio have worked alongside the likes of Magda, Jamie Jones, jozif, Damian Lazarus & Shonky and have now found a global stage for their productions and parties.  Pulse caught up with them ahead of their gig at Potty Mouth in London on February 4th to chat about new releases, who to watch out for this year and why the world is their stage in 2012.

What plans do you have for your label, Culprit, this year?  We've been building a reputation as one of the modern deep house labels of choice quite nicely, I think. The plan is continue to do that at a steady clip, going ever more in depth with the quality of the music we release, not chasing trends or easy hits. Now that we've been around for a few years, we have a sense of what works for the label or what doesn't.  We will be mixing up music from returning artists like M A N I K, Shonky, Matt Tolfrey and - hopefully - Lee Foss, first full EPs from close friends of the label like jozif and exciting music from fresh talents like Climbers, Nikko Gibler, Nico Lahs.

With three of you in the outfit, who takes care of what production-wise?  There isn't really a division of labor, so much. Brett is the most thoroughly technically minded, I suppose - we've accumulated a lot of great plug-ins and sample libraries due to him. He also organizes things well, which is very necessary. I'm quick with the ideas, I think. So we compliment each other that way

You've also done a fair amount on one of the biggest labels of last year, Crosstown Rebels, and mixed their compilation. How did that relationship come about and any more releases planned?  We've admired the label from the start and pretty early on in our Droog/Culprit venture we got the chance to meet and hang out with Damian, after he moved to LA, we've gotten even tighter with him. He's always pushed us to do original music, so when we made the first batch of songs with Chris "Inxec" that passed our own tough taste test, Damian seemed like the right person to send it first to. He loved them all and picked up the release for the label, which was exciting.  We are working on some more originals with Inxec as we speak, basically, having done a load of remixes lately. Really itching to get another few original EPs out there.

What's more important to Droog- parties or productions?  Authentic feeling is the most important thing in everything we do. Just having everything be totally true and honest to our worldview. With parties, productions and label we stick to our path and try not to force it if its not honest, might take longer to get to the pinnacle, but that approach feels better and has actually been working a bit lately.

You're playing at Potty Mouth on Feb 4th. What can the crowd expect?  Wall-to-wall, big shit-eating grin inducing dance music. Maybe some enlightenment, nothing less.

Where in the world would you say is key to promoting your sound?  Everywhere, really. Pardon the cliche, but it's a much more global world and we love the idea of reaching new fresh ears around the world- Europe and UK in particular are our strongholds, the dance music culture and infrastructure is so dense, if you make an impression there, you can really grow. But it's really heartening to be doing well in the US, that has been a much harder place to break. Now Central and South America are fast catching on our sound, which is great. 

And who would you mark out as 'one to watch' for 2012?  So many! jozif, Tom Trago, Subb-an will continue to do really well, Lula Circus, Coat of Arms and many more!

Droog play Potty Mouth on February 4th at Netil House, East London

Line-up 
Inxec vs Droog back-to-back 3 hr set (Cocoon / Crosstown Rebels)
Catz N Dogz live  (Pets Recordings / Get Physical)
Noir (Noir Music)
Potty Mouth residents

For tickets and info, head here

Listen to Droog on Pulse Radio